Aurora Borealis
by BookishBadger
Summary: A short myth, explaining the Aurora Borealis. Includes Juno, and a few original characters. Rated PG just to be on the extremely safe side - just clean character death.


I wrote this in eleventh grade, about two and a half years ago, as an entry for a Modern Myth contest at the CJCL (California Junior Classical League) Latin Convention. (Yay Latin!) Amazingly, it won second place.

I created this story to explain the Aurora Borealis.

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Tanatha, the goddess of anguish and despair, was for once, content. She had finally had her son, Cernus, and he was turning out to be a good little half-immortal boy. To avoid embarrassment from the other immortals, she had reluctantly left her son to grow up with his mortal father. Tanatha peered down through the heavens to look for son and her lover. Tearing her gaze away from the lands below, she wandered off in search of a bowl of water. Once she found one, she sat down on a nearby bench resting in the deities' pavilion and conjured up a moving picture of her son's whereabouts. Cernus seemed to be having fun chasing the sheep, and Tanatha smiled to herself. She sighed sadly as she caught sight of Brelan, Cernus's father. The back of her neck prickled slightly, and she turned her head swiftly to see Juno watching her. Tanatha quickly waved her hand to banish the image, and set the bowl down behind her on the bench, but it was too late - Juno had seen Tanatha's son in the bowl. Juno disliked Tanatha intensely, ever since Tanatha had jokingly made advances on Jupiter. All Tanatha had wanted was to cause a little despair to Juno...

Juno smiled innocently to Tanatha's face, and walked off to another part of the gods' dwelling. Her smile was now malicious as she set off to get some sweet revenge on Tanatha. Juno transported herself to a wooded area near Brelan and Cernus's hut. She dressed herself in a slightly ragged but suggestive dress, and smudged some dirt on her face. Stepping carefully out of the woods, she took a deep breath, and started to pretend to wail as she ran down the path towards Brelan's hut.

It was a cold winter morning, and Brelan was mending some old clothes of his son's outside the door of the hut while Cernus played in the chilly dirt with their pet dog. Hearing a somewhat hysterical wail coming from the other side of a nearby hill, Brelan lifted his head to try to catch the source of the noise. Just as he was about to put down the smock he was mending, Juno hurtled down the hill and collapsed in a heap near his feet. Brelan peered cautiously at the lady lying on the ground, and tried to help her up. "Help, oh help!" Juno cried as she was hauled to her feet, "A group of men waylaid me by the side of the road near the woods back there, and took all my belongings; you've got to help me!" Brelan looked over the hill at the woods, and shook his head sadly, "Sorry Lady, there's no way to catch them, now. Would you like to sit in my hut and have a drink, to calm yourself down?" Juno nodded, feigning innocence, and walked inside the hut. Brelan picked up his son under his arm, and poked the dog inside with his foot. As he went to pour her a drink, she began to talk. "My name is Reilia, thank you for your kindness. Would you mind if I stayed the night?" she asked as she accepted the drink. He stammered, "Ehm, I don't really have room for another, it's just my son and I...but I guess you could sleep in the bed and I could lie on the floor." Juno smiled brilliantly at him, and nodded again, "Thank you, you're too kind."

Brelan ducked outside to feed the sheep, leaving "Reilia" inside with little Cernus. She bent over, picked the little boy up and tickled him. "Cute little boy," Juno thought to herself, "pity I'm going to have to kill him." She put him down again and sat down on a stool near the fire. Cernus's father entered the hut again, and set about making a meager dinner. After they ate, Cernus was put to sleep in his bed, a large wine barrel cut in half. Juno pretended to fall asleep on the uncomfortable pallet Brelan had called a bed. "Deus," she muttered, "thank goodness I won't be here long." She waited until Brelan looked asleep, and rose slowly. On her face was a mask of malicious fury as she stepped quietly over to Cernus's bed. She picked him up, began to strangle him, and would have been more successful if the dratted baby hadn't started to wail as she killed him. Brelan woke from his place near the fire with a start, and cried out, "Reilia, no!" But it was too late - Cernus was dead. Juno cursed, and dropped the lifeless baby into its bed. Brelan tried to overpower her, but it was futile. How would he have known she was an immortal? They grappled for a moment, but with a burst of inhuman strength, she threw him into the fire. He cried out as she held him in the fire.

Tanatha somehow heard the cries of her love, and immediately came. She burst in, and saw Juno pressing Brelan in the fire. "No!" she cried, and lashed out at Juno. She pulled Brelan out of the fire, and tried to help him, but he was too far gone. He died in her arms, and she was left alone, childless and loveless. She turned to set her fury on Juno, but Juno had already disappeared. Tanatha picked up her son and love, and laid them to rest on a funeral pyre. When there was nothing left but ashes, she scattered them around Brelan's hut. Tanatha ascended to the heavens, and sat upon a cloud, looking down at where her love had been. She cried as she never had, wailing with indescribable anguish and loss. Her tears streaked the winter sky, and stayed there, shimmering. Now, every winter, she is reminded of the two deaths of the people she loved, and cries. Her immortal tears are now named the Aurora Borealis, that are seen sometimes in the winter when she grieves for her losses.

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Hmm. It's much shorter than I thought it was. Oh well! Hope you enjoyed it.


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